Professional Development to help your organisation become Climate Ready
Local councils are at the heart of the community, and the services provided are critical to support the foundations for people across Australia to build a prosperous economy, liveable communities, and a healthy environment. Proactively managing climate risk through adaptation and transitioning to a net zero economy, can not only help to respond and manage climate risk, but also take advantage of the opportunities that arise from a changing climate.
This course will provide foundational knowledge and build staff capability for climate risk management.
This program is designed for
Executives, senior leaders, coordinators, team leaders, and managers of local councils across all service areas. This program is tailored for all service areas, including those working in service delivery, corporate strategy and finance, risk and disaster management, community and economic development, and sustainability and climate change.
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In 2025, the Becoming Climate Ready Course runs across four cohorts: February, April, July and September.
Learning outcomes
In this program you will learn the context, tools, and concepts you need to develop strategies to help your council manage and respond to climate risks and opportunities. Participants will learn how to identify their organisation's current positioning and the necessary factors needed to execute effective and efficient climate risk management.
Participants will develop knowledge and skills to be able to:
- Understand the role of executive leadership, governance arrangements and responsibilities that are needed to support climate risk management.
- Identify how to communicate and engage others in climate risk management.
- Identify physical and transition climate risks and how they relate to different service areas in local government.
- Integrate climate risk into existing corporate risk management practices.
- Examine climate risk capacity and capability gaps and opportunities across the organisation.
- Understand the opportunities for monitoring and reporting on climate risk management, and the increasing requirements climate financial risk disclosure.
Our program
The delivery will be interactive, self-paced and all online over the course of 10 weeks. There will be three (3) facilitated online workshops and a commitment of approximately 2 hours each week is required. Upon successful completion, participants will be awarded with a Griffith University Digital Badge.
Meet the team
The course will be brought to you by the Climate Ready Initiative (CRI) a key pillar of the Griffith Climate Action Beacon. CRI is a partnership-based social impact initiative that works with society to help shape a prosperous and just future for all. We seek to enable climate action by unlocking the economic and social development pathways that value net-zero emissions and climate resilience.
The course draws on practical experience and expertise from some of our CRI Associates and academics across Griffith University.
Professor Brendan Mackey
Professor Brendan Mackey is Director of the Griffith Climate Action Beacon, Griffith University. The Beacon seeks to develop the knowledge, leadership, capacity, and responses to enable effective and just climate action throughout society and focuses specifically on interdisciplinary research and cross-sectoral practice collaborations as catalysts for climate action. He is also Coordinating Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Chapter 11 – Australasia. He has a PhD in Ecology from The Australian National University and has authored over 250 publications in the fields of environmental science and policy.
Cheryl Briars
Cheryl is a Project Manager at the Climate Ready Initiative and works closely with government and stakeholders across a broad range of disciplines to facilitate and implement projects to support capacity and capability building for climate risk management. Cheryl understands the complexity of climate change and environmental issues, and the innovative approaches required to scope solutions, manage risks, and harness opportunities. Cheryl led the development of this micro-credential course.